A quota undone by caution

On the evening of April 17th, as rain pattered on the Parliament complex, a small knot of women MPs from the ruling BJP-led coalition raised slogans under sodden umbrellas. Their protest was theatrical but heartfelt: the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill,…

Asia’s energy shock

The Strait of Hormuz, a channel barely three kilometres wide at its narrowest point, has once again demonstrated its power to unsettle the global economy. On April 18th, Iranian gunboats fired on a tanker in the waterway, and Tehran announced…

China’s surprising spring

On April 16th China’s National Bureau of Statistics released its first-quarter GDP figures for 2026. The economy expanded by 5.0% year on year, beating analysts’ forecasts of 4.8% and accelerating from the 4.5% recorded in the final quarter of 2025.…

The art of the deal, revisited

History will record that the great dealmaker came to Islamabad, saw, and somehow still managed to tweet about it as a tremendous success. Donald Trump’s much-vaunted diplomatic foray into brokering peace between America and Iran has ended, as so many…

A Fragile Truce Unravels

The collapse of direct talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad marks a sobering setback for efforts to stabilise a region already strained by six weeks of conflict. After 21 hours of negotiations, which began on April 11…

A Nobel Gesture in Lahore

In the grand chamber of Punjab’s provincial assembly, a resolution tabled on Thursday has a distinctly ambitious ring. Rana Arshad, A lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has proposed nominating Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Gen Asim…